Study Questions & Essay Topics

Study Questions & Essay Topics

Study Questions & Essay Topics

Study Questions & Essay Topics

Study Questions & Essay Topics

Study Questions

1. What role did Shabbetai Tzvi play
in the history of Kabbalah?

Many religions, including Christianity and
Judaism, believe in a messiah, a spiritual deliverer who will someday
return to earth to restore the kingdom of God. Throughout history,
a number of false messiahs have arisen claiming to know God. In
Judaism and Kabbalah, perhaps none is more infamous than Shabbetai
Tzvi and his prophet, Nathan of Gaza. The Tzvi debacle began in
the early 1660s when Nathan of Gaza claimed to have had a vision
of Shabbetai Tzvi’s name inscribed on a fiery throne in heaven.
He journeyed to Tzvi’s home, fell to at his feet, and declared him
the Messiah. Within months, Tzvi and Nathan had convinced hundreds
of thousands of Jews that Tzvi was indeed their messenger from God,
the long-awaited Messiah. By 1664, however, the tide had turned
and both Tzvi and Nathan of Gaza were banished from the major Jewish communities,
cast off as frauds.

The “false messiah” episode caught Jews and kabbalists
at a particularly dangerous and vulnerable time. Following their
expulsion from Spain in 1492, their tribulations during the Inquisition,
and their casualties in large-scale massacres throughout Europe,
Jews were eager for some sense of hope and deliverance. Kabbalah thrived
off of this need for hope as it portrayed the human world as deeply
flawed, desperately in need of repair. Jews came to view Kabbalah
as a religion sympathetic to their plight, and they flocked to it in
droves. Whereas Judaism portrayed God as a distant presence out of
touch with the Jews’ current struggle, Kabbalah presented God as a
part of that struggle, a fellow sufferer who required their help
to restore the world to a state of wellness. As Jews fled into the
rest of Europe from Spain in the late 1400s, they increasingly took
up kabbalistic traditions and spread them throughout the continent.
Shabbetai Tzvi benefited from the rapid spread of Kabbalah across Europe,
but kabbalists soon discovered that his messianic claims were just
another example of the human world’s profound flaws.

As a final proof of his phoniness, in 1666 Tzvi agreed
to convert to Islam after the Sultan of Turkey threatened him with
death if he refused. Though Tzvi’s conversion struck most Jews and
kabbalists as unforgivable, a large contingency of Shabbetaens held
fast to their faith that Tzvi was indeed the Messiah. Following
their leader, they converted to Islam and recognized Tzvi as the
Messiah for at least another century. Kabbalistic leaders took the
Tzvi episode as an indication that the booming religion required
some reins. Rabbis imposed limits on overly charismatic kabbalistic
leaders and encouraged their followers to shun any individual or
group that claimed to have messianic ties.

2. What are the sefirot?

The concept of the sefirot is
perhaps the most important theme in all of Kabbalah. When Ein Sof
(God) created the universe, it withdrew within itself to make room
for everyone and everything that would inhabit the world of “material
reality,” the world in which humans live. But Ein Sof’s energy proved
too powerful and all encompassing for the human world, so Ein Sof
had to translate its energy into another form—the sefirot.
The sefirot, which translates to “emanations” or
“aspects,” represent Ein Sof’s energy, its presence in the human
world. Kabbalists describe Ein Sof as pure energy, formless and
unknowable. The sefirot serve as messengers or
translators of God’s energy, each conveying one quality of God.

There are ten sefirot. Kabbalists typically
depict the sefirot as a ladder or tree, which has
come to be called the Tree of Life. Much like the Bible depicts
the human body as created in the image of God, the Tree of Life
presents the sefirot as parts of God’s body. Each sefirah appears
in a specific location on the Tree, which also corresponds to its
location on God’s body. For example, the sefirah Yesod
means “foundation” and appears at the base of the Tree, where it
symbolizes God’s penis.

Each sefirah is classified as masculine,
feminine, or neutral, and the nine main sefirot split
into three main groups of three, followed by Shekhinah, the final
and only solo sefirah in the material world. In
addition to representing a part of God’s body, each sefirah is
a part of a broad subgrouping. The three groups and the sefirot within each
are: intellect (Keter, Chochmah, Binah), emotion (Chesed, Gevurah,
Tiferet), and action (Netzach, Hod, Yesod).

3. What is Shekhinah?

Shekhinah, the tenth sefirah, represents
God’s presence in the world of “material reality” in which humans
live. Shekhinah, the daughter of Binah, is a feminine sefirah whose
role is to channel all the energies of the upper nine sefirot into
the everyday human world. Without Shekhinah, humans would have no
concrete understanding of divinity. Kabbalistic literature typically
portrays that Shekhinah as an outcast, a lone sefirah.
Her separation from Ein Sof and the other sefirot parallels
the exile of the Jewish people from their homeland of Israel. Because
Shekhinah is a part of Ein Sof, Ein Sof can never be whole or healed
until Shekhinah returns from exile, just as Jews can never know
peace until all Jews can return to Israel. Kabbalistic literature
symbolically represents this return in the sexual union of Shekhinah
and Tiferet, the sefirah that represents God’s
beauty. Kabbalists all share the same aim: to unite Shekhinah with
Tiferet through faithful devotion to Kabbalah, and in turn bring
about the restoration of Ein Sof.

Suggested Essay Topics

1. Why is language so important to kabbalists?

2. Explain the importance of the concept of “withdrawal”
to the kabbalistic view of creation.

3. Why is the idea of Sitra Aha, or “the other side,”
so revolutionary?

4. What is the importance of the sefirah Shekhinah?
How is Shekhinah different from the other sefirot?

5. What do kabbalists believe is the ultimate goal of
practicing Kabbalah?

More Help

I thought I was good at writing essays all through freshman and sophomore year of high school but then in my junior year I got this awful teacher (I doubt you’re reading this, but screw you Mr. Murphy) He made us write research papers or literature analysis essays that were like 15 pages long. It was ridiculous. Anyway, I found